Hurry Up, Houdini!

Jack and Annie travel back in time to Coney Island in the early 1900s, where their mission is to find a "secret of greatness" from stage magician Harry Houdini. The conflict in this story comes less from their historical time travel and more from sibling squabbles: they're supposed to be a team, but Annie keeps making decisions without consulting or listening to Jack, which makes him angry. Luckily, the two make up just in time to go onstage as Houdini's opening act.

We join Jack and Annie as they are about to head out on their second mission for Merlin the Magician to discover the secret to greatness from The Great Houdini himself. The pair travel back in time to the early 1900’s and find adventure in Coney Island in New York City by going on amusement rides, eating fair food, putting on a magic show and befriending the Great Houdini and his wife Bess. This book is a great addition to the Magic Tree House (MTH) series that emphasizes the ethics of hard work, teamwork, loyalty, friendship and courage. Specifically, the text includes increasingly complex dialogue, sentence structure, and vocabulary for children who enjoy this series but are ready for more complex writing. Achromatic illustrations show more are incorporated into each chapter, typically one full page illustration per chapter. Additionally, the back matter includes an author’s note on her research for the book as well as magic activities for readers to try themselves. I recommend this book for readers who already enjoy the MTH series but are transitioning towards more chapter books. This would also be a good choice for a read-aloud in a public library or school setting with a variety of newly independent readers where you can discuss the historical context, research process and do the magic activities as a group. (Ages 7-11) show less

Jack and Annie take a trip to Coney Island in their magic treehouse to learn a secret of greatness from the Great Houdini. They know when they get to Coney Island that they need to buy tickets to see the Great Houdini's magic show before they sell out, but as soon as they arrive, they're fascinated by all of the greatest rides in the world and greatest foods in the world. Annie convinces Jack to eat a hot dog, ice cream, and ride a ride before they go and buy tickets for the magic show. While they're eating ice cream, they meet a sweet couple on a bench, Bess and Harry, who are also attending the magic show. When Jack and Annie finally get to the box office to buy tickets, the show is already sold out. Luckily, the theatre was in show more desperate need of an opening act so Annie convinced the theatre owner to let Jack and her be the opening act. Jack and Annie used magic mist to turn themselves into talented magicians for their opening act. After their act, they tried to talk to the Great Houdini before his magic act, but he was nowhere to be found. Since Houdini didn't show up for his magic act, Jack and Annie had to stall until he got there, but their magic mist expires after an hour. Shortly after Jack and Annie stepped back onto the stage, their magic mist had expired. Luckily, the Great Houdini finally showed up, but he looked familiar. It was Bess and Harry! After the show, Jack and Annie met back up with Bess and Harry, who shared that hard work was a secret of greatness.

This is a great book for young students just beginning to read novels. This book of adventure and magic will be one that students won't want to put down! show less

I enjoyed the unexpected mini-twist at the end. I'm also loving the effect the mists are having on the plot.

This is the fiftieth Magic Treehouse Book and the twenty-first Merlin Mission book. Though still a transitional chapter book, Hurry Up Houdini is at a somewhat higher reading level than earlier books. As always, the first chapter encapsulates the background of what the reader needs to know about the series, and so the book can be read out of order, though many readers will want to read the series in order. As Jack and Annie travel back in time to Coney Island to find the secret to Harry Houdini’s success, conflict is provided in the form of an argument between Jack and Annie when Annie begins to make decisions without consulting Jack. As readers of the series know, all ends well, with a successful completion of Jack and Annie’s show more mission. This mission highlights the importance of working as a team, as well as the importance of hard work, as provided by Houdini’s wife Bess. A short Author’s Note with historical information is included at the end of the book, as are instructions for a simple magic trick. Readers who are intrigued by the history of Coney Island or Houdini, or who want to learn more about magic tricks could be guided to further resources. show less

Jack and Annie go on a mission to find Houdini's secret of greatness. They go to Coney Island in New York and need to get tickets to his show. Annie wants to do other things first, but Jack doesn't want to. They end up doing a few things and by the time they go to buy tickets they are sold out. Annie volunteers them to be the opening act, since the opening act ran away, but Jack is mad at her about this and doesn't want to. They put on the magic show with the help of magic dust. Houdini fails to show up so they go back on stage and embarrass themselves since the magic dust has run out. Then, Houdini shows up and puts on a great show. Afterwards, they still hadn't found the secret of greatness so they find Houdini and Bess and she is show more able to say that the secret is hard work. They are then able to go back home, but they show Houdini a magic act he's never seen when they disappear in their treehouse. show less

Great for early readers.